An English Rose Remembered
by Patrick Oliver, Qld Australia , Aged 52
My Mother died of cancer in 2001 aged 81. It was on census day, so even if I forgot the date I could always figure it out from that. Sadly I found her census form which she had started to fill in, but messed up at the beginning, and gave up on. I got a call from a sister at the nursing home my mother had been forced to move to, telling me that Mum had deteriorated badly during the night, and her doctor had been summoned and had injected morphine. This was on the Gold Coast. I was in Brisbane. It was about 9am. I chewed it over and decided I best go down, and just as well I did, because 3/4 of an hour after I arrived Mum stopped breathing and that was it. I have always been grateful that I was able to be there sitting beside her when it all came to an end. Her ashes I spread in the rose garden at New Farm park. I often stop there during my walks for a quiet moment.
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